A packed house greeted all five Madison County sheriff’s candidates as they faced their voting public in a political forum June 19 hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau and held at the high school’s performing arts theater in Danielsville.

The field for sheriff includes current sheriff Kip Thomas, who is trying to hold his office not only against newcomers, but also against former long-time sheriff Clayton Lowe, who Thomas defeated by a narrow margin in 2008.

Both Thomas and Lowe are running as Republicans, along with newcomer Brenan Baird, an Athens Clarke County police officer. Former Georgia State Patrol officer William Kenneth White and former Comer police chief Brent Zellner, are both running as Democrats.

Each candidate was given the opportunity for brief opening and closing statements.

Thomas told the audience that he ran on three things during his 2008 campaign; drug enforcement, communication and a school resource officer.

Thomas said drugs are a continuing battle his department fights every day and that he has worked to improve communication. Deputy Mark Jerome was installed as a school resource officer at the high school in 2010, Thomas noted. He pointed to the implementation of firearm training classes for women, inmate detail and other programs he has started.

“I have a lot more I want to do,” he said.

Lowe, who currently works for Jackson County, said he has spent 28 years in law enforcement, and is most proud of the time he spent as sheriff of Madison County from 1997 – 2008, where he was involved in helping to establish the E-911 system and a new jail, as well as a drug unit.

He added that he has raised over $40,000 mostly in small amounts from citizens. “ I am not a puppet on a string, I’m not bought and paid for, right is right and wrong is wrong, win, lose or draw,” he said.

Zellner told the audience that one of his major plans as sheriff would be to set up patrol “zones” for deputies to ensure that the county was covered.

“I will not be an 8 – 5 sheriff,” he said, adding that he wants to bring stability to the sheriff’s office.

White said his main goal would be to “put deputies back in the communities” if given the opportunity to serve as sheriff.

“I want the deputies to look and act professionally; they should be dressed nice,” he said.

Baird told the audience he would like to bring his training and experience to Madison County, where he was born and raised.

“I want to bring confidence and character to the sheriff’s office,” he said. “They (referring to Thomas and Lowe) had a chance.”

The following is a list of questions, followed by a summary of the responses given by candidates.

•The Madison County sheriff oversees about $2 million dollars of taxpayer money each year. Can you explain why we should trust you with that responsibility? Also, can you give us examples of cost-saving strategies you plan to implement over the next four years?

Lowe said he should be trusted because he’s “done it for 12 years.”

“I can operate your budget and I won’t spend money we don’t have,” he said, adding that cost-saving strategies would need to be implemented, especially since the tax digest will be down this year. “I can do the job as well or better than anybody,” Lowe said.

Thomas said his administration has shown they can work within budget over the past three years.

“It’s (budget) been cut every year since I’ve been in office,” he said. He gave examples of how his department has cut food expenses at the jail by bidding vendors and by purchasing eggs from a local farmer. He also said his department has received a half million dollars in grants and donations.

“Money is out there; you just have to take the time and effort to find it,” Thomas said.

Baird said he has reviewed open records, which show that the sheriff’s office operates three separate budgets that actually total $3.2 million. He also said the department has not been under or at budget since before 2008.
“I can do that,” Baird said of staying within the budget. “And they’ll be folks around me to help me do that.”
White said that as a certified grant writer he would write and oversee the applications for grants.

Zellner said he would use his experience as police chief and look at the ways funds have been spent by previous administrations. He also said he would seek grants and utilize money from drug seizures.

•Please share with us your greatest achievement in your law enforcement career. Likewise, give us a mistake you’ve made and how you learned and improved from the experience.

Thomas said his greatest achievement was building a “really great sheriff’s office” over the last three and a half years. “My officers are fair, honest and know how to do their jobs,” Thomas said. As to his greatest mistake, he said letting some people go “that (he) thought (better) about afterwards.”

Baird said the reputation he has forged in his 15 years of law enforcement is his greatest achievement, while learning that not everyone “that should go to jail will go to jail” was his greatest lesson.

Zellner said his greatest achievement was being Comer police chief for 10 years and that a mistake he made was by neglecting his family while putting in long hours.

White said he is proudest of his 25 years as a state patrolman and that he learned that everybody (who commits a crime) “don’t have to go to jail.”

Lowe said his greatest achievement is that he has “come home every night” during his 28 years in law enforcement and that his has never had a POST investigation.

“I’ve kept my nose clean and stayed out of trouble,” he said.

He said he has learned that you must sometimes “police by the heart and not by the letter of the law,” especially when dealing with kids.

•Please talk about drug use in Madison County. Tell us the effects you’ve witnessed on local families and tell us how you will combat drugs in our community.

Baird said his family, like many others, has been affected by drug use. He said his youngest brother, who was addicted to methamphetamine, committed suicide in 2004. “We must use the resources we have available to us, such as the MANS unit, (cooperation) with surrounding counties, state and federal grants, seizure money and education,” he said and pointed out that drug crimes drive other crimes in the county.

White said he would call for aggressive enforcement. He also said offenders should be kept in jail for longer periods.

Zellner said as sheriff he would “take charge of this epidemic.”

Lowe said he would bring back the county’s contract with a MANS (Multi Agency Narcotics Squad) unit instead of using a “single drug enforcement officer” like the current administration is doing. He pointed out that the MANS unit made 277 drug arrests during his last year in office and that he didn’t believe there had been that many drug arrests over the last three and a half years.

Thomas pointed out that drugs are not a county problem, but a problem all over the country and said that he found the MANS unit, over the one-and-a-half years he kept it, to be inefficient and that it costs the county $14,000 per year.

He said instead he has utilized the services of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the GBI and probation and parole officers at “no cost to the county.”

“They get the same or better results,” he said. “I take this (drug problem) very serious; it does lead to domestic violence and other crimes. I have done an excellent job in this ongoing battle.”

•Madison County’s special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) will be up for renewal in 2014. Meanwhile, funds are still available from the 2008 SPLOST for the expansion of the county jail. Please discuss how you would like to use SPLOST funds for the sheriff’s department and jail over the next four years.

White said he’d look at employing more deputies and at other community needs.

Zellner said he would look add a jail pod for female prisoners and more training for jailers.

Lowe pointed out that SPLOST funds must be spent for what citizens voted on. “And that’s to add on to the jail,” he said, pointing out that the jail was at capacity when he was there.

Thomas said it would cost about $3.3 million for a 124-bed expansion, which includes a medical wing and additional pods. He said to offset the issue of housing female inmates, he contracts with Elbert County for them to house their female inmates, while Madison County houses some of their males.

“This is at no cost to us,” he said.

Baird said he would use the funds as designated to add on to the jail, with an eye toward housing other county’s inmates to earn income from that.

•What will you do to curtail scrap metal theft in Madison County?

Zellner said he would work to deter the theft by having officers in zones where they would be in the “right place at the right time.”

“You can’t watch everybody’s a/c unit 24/7,” Lowe said, adding that there must be laws with “teeth” in them to make stolen metal harder to sell.

Thomas said his office works to maintain a presence within the county using the already established zones. He also said a new law taking effect July 1 requiring that sellers be registered and other restrictions should help deter the crimes.

Baird said statistics show that thefts have increased in the county over the last six years and that increasing police presence and making them part of the community will help.

•If you could get the Georgia legislature to change or create a law that would better serve law enforcement, what would it be?

Lowe said he would like to see them strengthen laws regarding the buying and selling of copper and other metals.

Thomas said he would like to see the court system speeded up so that it is less easy for repeat offenders to learn how to “work the system” and go in and out of jail.

Baird said he’d like to see the laws on domestic violence strengthened for repeat violators.

Zellner said he’d like to see tougher gun laws.

•What advice will you give to your officers when responding to domestic disputes?

Thomas said he tells his officer to be very mindful and very watchful in those situations.

Baird said he would have them check to see if they’re repeat offenders first and to be professional and make a decision on an arrest or other action based on the evidence.

White said he would advise his officers to talk to both sides and most importantly, to see if kids were involved.

Zellner said he would advise them to separate those involved and be aware of their surroundings while being polite and respectful.

Lowe said he would advise them to determine the primary aggressor, if possible and to wait for back up to assist them for officer safety.

•Please talk about your method for patrolling the county. Talk about how many officers are needed per shift, where you want them located and how you intend to address speeding and other road safety issues.

Baird said he would look at the history of calls for service in the county to see where deputies are most needed. He said that he would also give priority to curbing reckless driving and DUIs.

White said he would use patrol zones along with a 3-officer traffic unit and stagger the times that officers would come on and off duty to provided adequate service.

Zellner said he would use patrol zones to make sure officers are in the “right place at the right time.” He said he’d much rather write speeding tickets than work a wreck.

Lowe said he had five deputies on each shift seven days per week, but that he is not sure how many are used since he left office. He said the Hull area particularly needs an officer “24/7” since that are has the most calls for service. He said he was the first to use radar in county police cars and had them in most cars by the time he left office.

Thomas said he utilizes four officers on each shift and splits those shifts to cover “high volume” call times. He said he has increased traffic enforcement and said traffic fatalities have gone down, with six his first year in office and only one last year. He said his office has particularly increased traffic patrol in the Glenn Carrie Road area.

•How will you protect our children from sexual predators in Madison County?

White said he would work with the school system and establish a unit that worked sex offenders.

Zellner said he would work to make sure he knew where all of them were located and made contact with them. He said he would also work with the school system.

Lowe said registering sex offenders was one of his current duties and that he would post pictures everywhere it is allowed and talk to kids about not talking to strangers.

“I would do everything the law allows to make it hard on them,” he said.

Thomas said he found the photos and information on sex offenders in a “banker’s box” in the front office when he took office in 2009. He said he has worked to make the public more aware of sex offenders by putting their pictures on a TV screen in his front office that rotates their pictures constantly. The photos are also available on his website, he said as well as at the county complex, along with a map of where they are currently living. He also has made the school system familiar with registered sex offenders. He said he also works with DFCS and has worked 54 cases with this agency over the past three years.

Baird said officers, teachers and parents need to talk to children “all the time” and that parents have to take some of the responsibility for keeping their children safe. He said registered sex offenders should be kept up with and dealt with harshly as “the dregs of society.”

•If you receive a complaint from someone who has been arrested by one of your officers that the officer used unnecessary force, what will be your process for responding? Likewise, how will you instruct your officers on the use of force?

Zellner said he would implement training for all his officers and if he heard of a complaint he would personally look into it and have it investigated.

Lowe said he would look at such a complaint from the word “go” and call in an outside agency if necessary. He said he would hold weekly meeting with his officers as in his previous administration to discuss use of force and other situations.

Thomas said he takes any complaint of this type seriously and would immediately have another investigator look at it, including an outside agency if needed. He said “use of force” reports must be filed each time an officer employs force and that each one goes through the required use of force training.

Baird said mistakes are bound to happen and that he would begin by reading the report and talking with the officer and then the complainant.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

At the end of the meeting, several questions were presented from audience members.

One question concerned the establishment of a middle school resource officer.

Baird said he had no plan for such an officer, but would talk with school administrators to see if one was needed.

Lowe said road deputies were needed more than a dedicated officer for the middle school. He said he had no plans, however, to remove the resource officer at the high school who he thinks is doing a good job. He said he does feel that the school system should be paying for half of that officer’s expense, rather than the sheriff’s office absorbing the cost.

Thomas said he placed resource officer Mark Jerome in the high in 2010 and that he is talking with school administrators to work out an agreement for an officer for the middle school. He said he feels these resource officers are important because they establish a positive relationship with law enforcement that students would not otherwise have.

Another question from the audience centered on how each candidate would use “seized funds” and goods to benefit the public.

White said seized items should be auctioned off to benefit the public.

Zellner said the funds should be used to help with the sheriff’s budget.

Lowe said money garnered from seized funds should be used to buy equipment and that records of that money should be turned into the county auditor each year. He said that this had not been done under Thomas’s administration.

Thomas disagreed, saying that the auditor had seen those records. He said the funds were used for training and equipment as required. He said anyone, including county commissioners, were welcome to come to the sheriff’s office and look at the records if they have questions.

Baird said both Lowe and Thomas were “kind of right.” He said money from seized items was designed to help ease the sheriff’s budget. And he said that a request for open records showed him that there were some things missing in the reporting of seized funds and “has been for a long time” and that it can’t be accounted for.

The final question of the evening concerned whether or not to have a merit system for officers.

Both Thomas and Lowe said they are opposed to such as system and feel they should be able to “hire and fire” who they wish. They did however say they both agree on merit-based pay increases.

Baird disagreed, said he is in favor of a merit system. He said that to secure and hold good officers, the county must be able to offer job security.

“Whim firing should not be left all on one person,” Baird said. “With the pay here, they need job security